Prototypical effects of vagueness in advertising

Abstract:Vagueness exists widely in all aspects of human life. Because of its special function, vagueness is favored by advertisers. Based on prototype theory, the thesis explores the vagueness in advertising.

Key words:prototype vagueness advertising

1 The definition of vagueness

Vague language forms an important part of language, it is one of the distinct characteristics of natural language. People use vagueness deliberately or inadvertently. Vagueness phenomena play a vital role in human language. Ullmann(1962) presents that vagueness is in fact an advantage. He points out that:

If one looks more closely at this vagueness one soon discovers that the term is itself rather vague and ambiguous: the condition it refers to is not a uniform feature but has many aspects and many results from a variety of causes. Some of these are inherent in the very nature of language, whereas others come into play only in special circumstances (1962 : 118).

As to the definition of vagueness, Pierce is often considered as the originator of the notion of vagueness in language. He was the first to try to formulate the notion in a rigorous way, as follows:

A proposition is vague where there are possible states of things concerning which it is intrinsically uncertain whether, had they been contemplated by the speaker, he would have regarded them as excluded or allowed by the proposition. By intrinsically uncertain we mean not uncertain in consequence of any ignorance the interpreter, but because the speaker's habits of language were indeterminate; so that one day he would regard the proposition as excluding, another as admitting, those states of things. Yet this must be understood to have reference to what might be deduced from a perfect knowledge of his state of mind; for it is precisely because these questions never did, or did not frequently, present them that his habit remained indeterminate.(Channell, 1994:7)

2 Causes of vagueness

Crystal and Davy(1975) present four reasons for the existence of “vagueness” :

A. Memory loss, the speaker misses the right words.

B. The language has no suitable exact word or the speaker does not know it.

C. The subject of the conversation does not require such precision.

D. The choice of a vague item is deliberate to maintain the atmosphere.

3 Comments on previous studies

In the field of pragmatic vagueness, fewer researches have been done so far. Research on the horizontal links between vagueness and other disciplines such as mathematics, cognitive science are insufficient. Little research studies and explains vagueness from the perspective of prototype theory. Since its coming into being, it has been applied to many fields, but using prototype theory to explain vagueness is not enough.

4 Prototype Theory

Prototype theory (PT) is a notion proposed in the mid 1970s by the American psychologist Eleanor Rosch. Prototype theory is a mode of graded categorization in cognitive science, where some members of a category are more central than others. For example, when asked to give an example of the concept furniture, chair is more frequently cited than, say, stool. Prototype theory plays a central role in linguistics, as part of the mapping from phonological structure to semantics.

5 Prototypical effects of vagueness in advertising

Sample 1

带来如明月般亮丽,如湖泊般滋润的美白肌肤!(泊美)

Sample 2

We believe there is only one way to be beautiful, nature's way. We’ve believed this for years and still do (body shop).

According to Zhang Q(1998:20), one distinct characteristic of vagueness is that it has no clear-cut referential applicability. Take "beautiful" as an example, "something is beautiful" may be true as far as Jack is concerned, but it may not be quite true according to Mary's standard. How beautiful is beautiful? The norm of beauty varies, depending on many subjective factors. It appears that the reference of beauty is not clear-cut. Hence it is a vague concept.

In prototypical categorization, the more attributes a member has, the closer it is to the prototype. That is to say, if a member has more family resemblances, it is more closely related to the prototype and will be easier for people to recognize and store in mind.

Anything in the world undergoes acts of categorization. Categorization is the most important process among human cognitive activities. The prototype model of category as a response to the empirical evidence concerning the way people categorize things in their environment, and it, in return, leads to our understanding of the world structure. Language phenomena are so complicated that people could hardly give an exhaustive explanation, but among these complicated language phenomena, there always exist the distinctions of typical and atypical ones.

From an advertiser's point of view, vagueness is extremely attractive because people tend to interpret vagueness by the prototypes or the best examples. Advertisers even employ vagueness to avoid lawful and ethical responsibility for the sake of self-protection. Because the products in advertising may not be prototypes, thus the advertiser can create a good impression on the consumer and make the communication between advertisers and consumers effective and smooth. In this sense, consumers should further explore the intrinsic nature of natural language and cognitive rule of human mind. Consumers tend to depend on prototypes to cognize uncertain or incomplete information and get conclusions that are useful in making decisions during uncertainty, however, it do not necessarily lead to truths about the world. So consumers should raise the awareness and their comprehension of vagueness in advertisements.

References:

[1]Channell, J. Vague language[D].Oxford: Oxford University Press,2000.

[2]Kay, P. Prototype Semantics: the English Word[J]. Language, 1981.

[3]Rosch, E. Principles of Categorization[M]. In: Daniel J. Levitin, eds. Cognitive psychology. London; Mass: MIT Press, 2002.